1080p Projectors for the Ultimate Home Theater

1080p projectors are the ideal solution for top of the line home theater performance. When making your choice, consider throw distance and lens shift features (if needed) to make sure the model you want can be installed comfortably into your intended viewing room. All models are sufficiently bright for dark room viewing on screens up to 110" diagonal. However, some are brighter and can accommodate ambient light or larger screen sizes.

Sony has just released the VPL-HW40ES, a 1080p SXRD home theater projector. At $2,499, it is the most affordable Sony home theater proj... more»

Definitions of Commonly Used Projection Technology Terms

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Maximum Distance:Sometimes used to refer to the distance from the screen that a projector can focus the image. Most of the time, it is the manufacturer's opinion of how far from a screen the projector can be to cast an image that is useable (bright enough) in a fully darkened room. Consult the Projection Calculator for guidance on proper placement of a projector for a given screen and content.

Oversampling:Multiplies outgoing signal samples in order to more easily filter out aliased sounds but doesn’t create fidelity that isn’t there to begin with.

Color Break-up:Image anomaly which looks like a rainbow at the edge of bright objects on screen. Also called rainbow effect where sequential color systems, such as single chip DLP projectors or some LCoS RPTVs, update color information at different locations on the screen because of quick movement of screen objects or a viewer’s gaze. For instance, the red component of a white object will show at a different location on the screen than blue when an object moves quickly across because color is being displayed sequentially. This also occurs with quick relative movement such as moving your gaze from point to point across the screen. Most noticeable in bright objects.

HD-DVD:High-Definition Digital Versatile Disc. Two formats have been proposed for these high-capacity DVDs, including Blu-ray and the generically named HD-DVD. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic among others through the Blu-ray Disc Association and HD-DVD is backed by NEC and Toshiba through the DVD Forum. Blu-ray uses a higher resolution blue laser allowing for more disk capacity than HD-DVD, 25GB compared 15GB per layer. At present Blu-ray is more expensive and cannot be replicated on existing manufacturing lines.